A new offshoot of banned Islamist outfit JMB, Islam O Muslim was formed in Chapainawabganj three months ago, following internal feud between present leadership of JMB and some of their members over financial and ideological matters. The new outfit gets strong moral and financial support from Ahle Hadith community in Maldah and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal in India, captured Islam O Muslim leaders told police during interrogation.Former JMB leaders Selim alias Saifullah, Shahadat alias Abdur Rahim and Abdul Mumin were brought in presence of each other under police remand, where they disclosed different facts about formation of the new outfit. They said they arranged a meeting at a mango orchard at Kansat village under Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj in April this year.
Following two other meetings at bordering Raghunathpur and Ranihati villages in Shibganj upazila where Shahadat, Selim, Abdul Mumin, Rabiul Islam, Abdul Mubin, Ramzan and others were present, the name Islam O Muslim was selected as per proposal by Selim.
| Shahadat, Selim and others opposed different JMB activities, especially bomb blasts, and opted for using small arms to kill the targeted people. |
After swindling Tk 1 lakh taken from JMB for collecting arms and ammunition for the organisation, Selim broke away from the outfit and fled to India several months ago. On return, he started work to form a new outfit and persuaded several JMB members to join it. Islam and Muslim has strongholds in bordering Shibganj, Gomostapur and Bholahat upazilas but they are yet to form a full-fledged committee, police quoted Shahadat as saying.
Earlier, police Rab and BDR raided several places and arrested six top leaders of the organisation and seized arms and ammunition from them.However, two of their top leaders Ismail and Ramzan are yet to be netted.
Selim, main organiser of Islam and Muslim, has another wife in Murshidabad in India, where he used to take shelter and arrange supply of arms to his cohorts in Bangladesh, sources said. "This new organisation [Islam O Muslim] was born in April this year. But it could not expand much as the main activists have been arrested. We are trying to arrest others," said Nazrul Hossain, superintendent of police in Chapainawabganj.
Selim has been sent to a TFI cell in the capital from Chapainawabganj for further interrogation for three days, he said. On Friday, Selim gave confessional statement under Section 164 before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in Chapainawabganj, said IO of the case, Sub Inspector Shahin Akond of Sadar Police Station said.
I'm guessing, on the basis of no evidence at all, that there's a Pak connection in the JMB upper echelons, possibly with the just-discovered 14-year-old Lashkar-e-Taiba structure, almost certainly with HuJI...